Source: Public Relations and Information Department

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Congress to probe alleged misuse of UN Support Fund for Peacekeeping
23 August 2006 09:06:51 AM
Writer: Vicki Palomar, PRID

Akbayan representatives are calling for a congressional inquiry into the Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) decision to cut by forty percent the allowance a Filipino soldier receives for joining a UN peacekeeping mission.

Reps. Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel, Loretta Ann Rosales and Mario Joyo Aguja filed House Resolution 1313 directing the House Committees on National Defense and Security, Foreign Affairs and Good Government to conduct an inquiry into the Philippines' participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations and alleged irregularities in the use and management by the AFP of the United Nation Support Fund for Peacekeeping.

The solons said that this year, the AFP has reduced the allowance that a Filipino soldier receives even though the AFP gets full allowance for the soldiers or the so-called Troop Cost Allowance (TCA) from the UN.

The AFP, Aguja said, implemented a scheme where the base pay of soldiers in peacekeeping missions with ranks ranging from corporal to master sergeant is tripled while those from captains to colonels get 150% more than their salary, such that a soldier who receives a monthly salary of P10,000.00 will only get P30,000.00 instead of the P50,000.00 additional allowance from the peacekeeping operations.

The UN gives a uniform pay of US$1,028.00 per month as allowance for every soldier regardless of rank for all participating countries, US$1,000.00 of which is given by the AFP to every Filipino soldier in UN missions from 1999 to 2005 on top of his or her salary.

Aguja said the AFP claimed the UN Support Fund does not cover pre-deployment activities such as trainings and other logical requirements hence the decision to cut down the Troop Cost Allowance to recover the losses of the government.

But a report by the Newsbreak magazine, Aguja said, refuted the AFP claim that the government is losing money because of its UN peacekeeping duties and that the AFP has actually been saving money from its peacekeeping operations.

Aguja said the Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) between the United Nations and the Philippines specifies the reimbursements that the AFP, being the implementing agency of the MOU, shall receive for the expenses that it would incur for the deployment of troops for UN peacekeeping missions.

These reimbursements cover the allowance for soldiers or the TCA, their subsistence pay, and the equipment that the AFP supposedly has to purchase to support the troops or the Contingent-Owned Equipment (COE).

Aguja said the AFP received from the UN the amount of US$ 25,012,939.00 and US$ 10,026,361.00 as reimbursements for TCA and COE respectively from 1999 to 2005.